This Dead Star With a Glowing Shock Wave Shouldn’t Exist
Gizmodo••general
Key Points:
- Astronomers discovered a glowing bow shock around the white dwarf star RXJ0528+2838, a phenomenon previously unseen and unexplained by known cosmic mechanisms.
- The white dwarf, located about 730 light-years from Earth, lacks the typical accretion disc that usually fuels such outflows, making the presence of the shock wave a mystery.
- The bow shock has likely been sustained for over 1,000 years, despite the star showing no evidence of material outflow typically responsible for such structures.
- Scientists hypothesize that a strong magnetic field may channel material from the companion star directly onto the white dwarf, bypassing disc formation, but this theory does not fully explain the longevity of the outflow.
